Latino Daily News

Coastal Mexico Rattled By 6.2 Earthquake

A magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck Saturday off Mexico’s Pacific coast state of Jalisco, but no injuries or damage have been reported and no tsunami alert has been issued, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 4:53 a.m., was located 259 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of the town of Tomatlan, Jalisco, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

The epicenter also was located 303 kilometers (188 miles) southwest of the beach resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco; 311 kilometers southwest of Ixtapa, in Guerrero state; and 877 kilometers west of Mexico City.

It added, however that “earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter” and that “authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action.”

Mexico, one of the countries with the highest levels of seismic activity in the world, sits on the North American tectonic plate and is surrounded by three other plates in the Pacific: the Rivera microplate, at the mouth of the Gulf of California; the Pacific plate; and the Cocos plate.

The Cocos tectonic plate stretches from Colima state south and has the potential to cause the most damage since it affects Mexico City, which is located in the center of the country, has a population of 20 million and was constructed over what was once Lake Texcoco.

The magnitude-8.1 earthquake that hit Mexico City on Sept. 19, 1985, was the most destructive to ever hit Mexico, killing some 10,000 people, injuring more than 40,000 others and leaving 80,000 people homeless.

The most recent powerful quake to hit Mexico was a magnitude-7.6 temblor that rocked Colima on Jan. 21, 2003.